Can computers create great art? Most people struggle to tell the difference between human and digital pictures, and many prefer machine-made paintings.
Test shows we can’t spot AI paintings
Artful: This image above is made by AI (generated by Jack Galler). It shows a detail from the best-loved picture in a recent competition. Even 1,278 people who said they utterly loathed AI art still preferred AI paintings to great human artists such as David Hockney and Paul Gauguin. Glossary
Renaissance - The "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art.
Impressionist - A 19th Century art movement known for small but visible brush strokes.
Cognitive - Relating to the processes of thinking and reasoning.
LLM - A large language model (LLM) is a type of AI program that recognises and generates text.
Derivative - Something based on another source or version.
Camera obscura - A darkened room with a small hole or lens, through which an image can be projected. It has been speculated that Johannes Vermeer used one to achieve his minute attention to detail.
Hybrid - A mixture of two distinct species that combine to form one organism.